Dark Light
by Raynor Ateyus
Summary: Four years after the Reaper War, the Galaxy is struggling to rebuild. Earth is still trying to find their champion and the Normandy crew is stranded. Behind the scenes of the slow recovery, an enemy more powerful than ever is coming. Isaac Clark is needed. With the help of a new recruit from the Alliance, they will face hell itself to save their home. (Placed after ME3 and DS3)
1. Prologue

_Prologue_

The stars shined bright as the Milky Way swirled with such tranquility. Billions of stars drifting; ebbing and flowing as if with a current. Numerous systems traveling in unison as they spin with the motion of the galaxy. Yet, this thing of beauty is scarred with the remnants of war and death. Debris travels throughout with the ghosts of fallen warriors and the empty shells of their defeated enemies. Remains of the Mass Relays are carried along with the war torn battlefield. Those stranded away from their homelands have been forced to start anew in the systems they were assigned to protect. Some just drift in the black nothingness that is space only to have insanity or death follow nearby. Communications to their respected homes are still capable, but barely.

In the Artemis Tau cluster, a lone frigate drifts idly without knowledge of where to go. Rations are beginning to run low, fuel is running nearly dry, and many of the crew have either died from illness or self mutilation. In the medical wing, supplies are becoming increasingly scarce. Without proper equipment, the number of deceased continues to rise as the dreary months in space keep passing.

"Where are we now?", says a man in a disheveled military uniform.

Now longer than military standards, his dark brown hair, starting to show shades of grey, hung in front of his face. Stubble covered his drained face as he looked at the medical reports of the deceased.

"We're hitting into the hundreds, sir." addressed the young nurse.

The man let out a sigh as he threw the report down onto his desk. Startled by his reaction, the nurse jumped back. Just like the man, the nurse's features were becoming less than what she was before they became stranded. Her auburn hair looked as if she hadn't showered in weeks; her uniform covered in small splatters of blood and stains of chemicals.

Putting his face in his hands, the man asks, "How long before you guys run out?"

Looking towards the ground, as if ashamed, the nurse tenses as she hugs a clipboard tightly to her chest. "Doctor Phillips believes...believes it may only be a few more weeks before we exhaust our supplies, sir.", she faintly replies.

Getting up from behind his desk, the man, standing at about six feet tall, walks over to the young girl. Like a scared puppy, the nurse takes a hesitant step back as the man approached her. Putting his hands on her shoulders, the man, in a seconds time, brought the girl into his arms. Shocked at what was happening the nurse didn't move. "I'm sorry.."

Her paralysis subsided as she realized that a drop of water touched her neck. "I'm sorry for putting you and everyone aboard this ship through this hell.."

Tears began to well up in her eyes as she put her arms around the broken man; clipboard falling to the ground. "We swore to follow to you to the ends of the galaxy no matter what. For those still living..", she leans back to look into the man's hallowed face, "We shall keep our promise to the very end, sir."

Stepping back, she adjusts her uniform. Wiping away the tears from his eyes, he looked at the young nurse, seeing that same beautiful woman he met back on Eden Prime in his early years.

"Susan, you don't have to address me as sir.", he said sheepishly.

Susan smiled back with tears still streaming from her eyes, "You're my commanding officer Jack. It's only fair to the rest of the crew that I address you as sir, sir." After a quick salute, Susan exited the office to hurry back to the medical bay.

Captain Jack McGunnel began to walk back to his desk begrudgingly. _Even through all that this ship has been dealing with, that woman is able to still put on a smile. God I love her._, he thought to himself as he pulled his chair out. Just as he was about to sit down, a cadet flew into his office almost getting taken out by the door.

"Sir! We got a message from Alliance command!"

In disbelief, Jack came to the exhausted cadet asking, "Are you sure it was from the Alliance? We've been floating in this star cluster for countless months and out of no where we get a message from them?"

The cadet took a few deep breathes to regain his posture. After saluting, he replied, "Sir, it isn't just a message. We have a live transmission from Admiral Kalminov."

_Why now? Why of all times do we finally get a transmission from Alliance command? What the hell have they been doing?_, Jack angrily thought to himself as he and the cadet made their way to the Comm Room. Going through the corridors of the ship, the remaining crew were still hard at work keeping the ship in working order. Remembering what Susan said to him, he became confident that he would return his people to their families. The doors opened to the Comm Room. A long table sat in the middle of the room while several people stood around it. As he looked around the room, he recognized a few of the faces.

"Carl, what are doing here?"

Carl was standing in the corner donned in his lab coat and square rimmed glasses. His orange hair contrasted with his near pale white skin. Pushing up his glasses with the base of his hand, Carl replied, "I, Jack, am here because I was asked to be here, by him."

Carl pointed to the table where, at the center, stood a four foot hologram of a man in uniform, covered in medals and ribbons. "Hello, Captain McGunnel."

Standing at attention, Jack salutes to the hologram, "Admiral Kalminov, pleasure to see you sir."

"Likewise. It's been awhile since we've been able to get in contact with any of our ships since the end of the Reaper war. How are you fairing captain?", asked Kalminov.

Just as Jack was about to reply, "Nearly half of the crew have either offed themselves or just became weak and let their poor frail bodies wither away like spoiled goods." said a voice in the corner of the room.

In an instant, everyone in the room turned towards the young soldier leaning against the wall with his shoulder.

The room went silent. Nothing but the young soldier's heavy breathing and the humming of the ships engine could be heard. Kalminov's hologram kept it's posture while staring at the angered young man. "Captain McGunnel, who is this cadet?"

Recovering from the shock, Jack turned back towards the Admiral, "This is Private Ryan Hutchinson, sir. He was new on the ship when the Reaper war began. Battle-wise, he was at the top of his class."

The young soldier continued to stare at the hologram with an immense hatred. Still looking at the boy, Kalminov suggested, "What happened Captain? Why has this cadet lost any sense of respect for his superiors?"

Jack, standing at attention, looked at the private with sorrow; almost as if scared to answer the question.

"Captain?", asked Kalminov now looking at Jack with a soul piercing stare.

"I...", the words couldn't come out. Try all he might, Jack couldn't bring himself to say the truth.

Before he could finally make the decision to say it, Ryan, with a spiteful tone, informed the admiral. "He sacrificed my squad and another to save his own hide. Then, he nearly left us behind to die."

"Private Hutchinson, even though a tragic and undermining event has happened to you, for the sake of this conversation, please, hold your tongue.", said the Admiral with his teeth clenched together.

A darkened silence, once again, filled the room. The feeling of guilt and anger clouded the atmosphere.

"Now, Captain Jack McGunnel, is what this private has said true?", questioned Kalminov.

Jack felt the eyes of everyone in the room lock on to him. His stomach felt as if he was just stabbed and was twisting it around to insure more pain. "Yes, sir..."

The admiral let out a deep sigh, "Why?"

Just as Ryan was about to beat him again to the explanation, the admiral gave him a look of warning, "Speak another word and I will make sure that you will never see the stars outside your window again."

Taken aback, the private looked up at the hologram, looked at Jack, and then receded back into his corner. "Thank you.", said Kalminov, "Now, if you don't mind, please Jack, tell me what happened."

Knowing there was no way out, Jack began to tell his side of the story, "We were in the Antaeus system supporting the Quarians in the fight. A fire team was sent down to planet Trebin to help the ground troops. Private Hutchinson was a part of that team."

Jack continued on to explain how the reaper forces overran the team only to eventually kill the ones they went down to protect. It was a lost cause. The combined numbers of the Quarians and the human fleet were dwarfed by the sheer size of the enemy.

"What happened next, Captain?", asked Kalminov.

Keeping his eyes down to the ground, Jack regretfully pressed on, "The Quarian officers and I sent out a retreat to all units. We sent down transport ships to get our men out. I had to personally drive one due to some of our pilots being killed when we took damage to our cargo area. As I flew towards the planet to the extraction zone, I saw the bodies of my crewmen floating in suspended animation. Their frozen corpses stuck in looks of terror and sorrow."

Jack began to falter in his speech. His fists clenching, he went on. "Dodging debris and reaper ships, I finally made it down to the extraction point. The fire team was still a little ways out, so I landed in an area where they would be able to reach the ship while I covered them. As soon as they came over the hill, my heart sank into the deepest reaches of my stomach."

Saying this, Ryan shifted in his corner while muttering something under his breath.

"Out of the 5 people that went down, 3 remained in the group. Snapping out of my daze, I laid fire down upon the enemy thinking that would help them. Private Hutchinson was in front while his fellow soldiers were trying to keep up. It was only a matter of time before I realized that a dreadnaught class reaper was heading to our position. I had to make the choice of saving one life or risking all of ours to get out. Knowing either way was going to end up in losing something, I chose to save Hutchinson. As soon as he got in, I immediately started taking off. Once the door closed, I heard the screams and yells of the others begging for me to open it. I couldn't do it, sir. I had to leave. We left the extraction point as the sounds of agony could be heard from the two soldiers dying."

Heaving a broken sigh, Jack finally looked back up at the admiral with sorrowful eyes.

"I see.", the admiral placed his hand around his chin nodding.

"What you did was a hard choice, Jack. I now understand why the private would have much distaste for you. But..", turning around, Kalminov looked towards the broken soldier in the corner. "What would you have done, private? Would you have taken the risk and tried to save your friends with the knowledge that you would have never made it out? Or would you have done the exact same thing that captain did for you?"

Ryan turned towards the hologram, eyes bloodshot, with a look of uncertainty. "I don't know..."

The admiral stood up tall, slightly puffing out his chest, "What your captain did was the hard choice but it was also the only choice. He gave you, private, the chance to fight again. Instead of sitting in the corner and wishing they were still alive, you need stand up tall and live with your fellow soldiers still in heart. Live and fight for them. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't want you acting this way."

Ryan collapsed to the floor, crying and screaming, remembering the friends that he lost.

"Miss Holloway, could you please escort the private back to his quarters?", asked Jack.

The young nurse, standing 4 feet away from where Ryan was sobbing, went over to him and lead him out of the room.

"Now..", Kalminov said while clapping his hands together, "On to business. Captain, I hear your ship and crew are stuck in the Artemis Tau cluster. How close are you to the system of Sparta?"

"We have been floating near that system for almost a year now.", explained one of the crew members sitting in the room.

"Is that so?", asked Kalminov.

"Yes, sir. After the destruction of the mass relays, we've been stuck here. We haven't been able to make contact with anyone until now. Has the Alliance been able to get communications back up and running?", replied the Captain.

A look of worry shadowed the admiral's face. "We've been able to get only a few networks back up and running. This being one of them."

Some of the crew members in the room whispered to each other with excitement.

"We may finally be able to go home."

"I can't wait to see my family again..."

Giving an authoritative resonance in his voice, the admiral quelled the whispers. "Everyone, please listen. Thought we may have gotten a few communications up..." Everyone stared at the hologram with anticipation.

He sighed, "Though we may have gotten a few communications up, there's no way we can bring you all home."

The air became heavy with a depression as the unbearable news was given. "The reason I contacted you was because of an anomaly we detected within Sparta. I'm sending the data to your scientists. Hopefully they can put together an idea of what's happening."

Jack turned toward a man sitting closest to the entrance with a concerned look, "What's it look like Adam."

Adam shifted his feet as if nervous at what appeared as his Omni-tool lit up. The humming of the ship was all that could be heard as the young man looked at his screen; pushing his hair back with his other hand with a look of confusion.

"Adam!" The young man jumped back as Jack broke the deafening silence, "What does the information say?"

Unsure of how to reply, Adam looked back down at the screen and tried to find the words, "Sir, the data shows abnormal energy readings coming from the systems sun. It seems to be...dying."

"That's impossible.", said Jack. "The sun in that system should still have hundreds upon thousands of years left on it."

The admiral nodded in agreement, "And there lies the problem. We need you to go find out what's happening and if need be, stop it."

Jack turned towards the hologram with disgust, "But sir, we have barely any rations or medical supplies. Our ammo is all but depleted and the ship has little fuel left. How do you expect us to carry out this mission?"

Admiral Kalminov's face tightened in anger, "Are you disobeying an order Captain? Find out what's happening and then we'll go from there. End of story."

Kalminov turned and left the the middle of the table, dissipating. "John." A voice cracked over the intercom, "Sir?"

Jack leaned against the conference table with his head down, "Take us into the Sparta system."

A sigh sounded over the intercom, "Yes sir.." The roar of the engines sounded in the distance as Jack pounded his fist into the table, "Everyone get back to your stations."

All the people in the room took a second to collect their bearings and began to leave. _Why now? Why us? Why do they still not seem to care? _Slamming his fist one last time on the conference table, Jack turned and left to go to the bridge.

"We're just now coming up behind Ontamalca, sir. We should be seeing the sun any minute."

Jack stood behind the pilot, arms crossed, waiting to see what they were sent to find. "This better be damn good. After this mission, we'll have nothing left."

The pilot looked around his seat, "I'm sure it was for good reason, sir. Maybe it'll help us get back to the Sol system."

Scoffing at the pilot's comment, Jack replied, "I highly doubt this will help us get back but...it would be nice." Just as he finished a siren began to sound on the pilot's display. "What's going on?", Jack asked.

Frustrated yelling was sounding behind the captain as a scientist began pushing people out of the way yelling, "Captain! Captain! We have to turn back!"

Jack walked a few steps towards the hallway that led to the CIC yelling back to the scientist, "What do you mean?"

The scientist, out of breath, spoke in broken words, "The...the sun...it's worst than we thought..." A shadow filled the bridge as the ship finally came into view of the sun.

"What in god's name...", Jack froze in place as he turned to see what was happening. "It's...black."

The once bright sun, lighting up the system of Sparta, was now as black as night. Though it had no visible light, it gave off a glow that covered everything in a film of darkness. Leaving the planet behind, the ship began to slowly drift towards the black sun.

"What's going on?" Jack couldn't hide his fear at the horrific sight.

The scientist, staring blankly at the dark circle, droned in reply, "It seems the core of the sun has been...drained. Drained of the energy that once powered it."

Jack quickly turned towards the almost zombie like man, "Drained? How can one drain a star of it's energy? That's impossible."

A muffled sound, much like thunder, resounded through the ship. Jack ran into the CIC and up onto the platform showing the milky way before him. "Get me through to engineering." A beep followed, "Hank, was that you guys? Did something happen to the engine?"

An older man's voice echoed throughout the room, "No, sir. We thought that was something coming up from where you were, sir."

"Captain!", the display of the galaxy dropped as Jack looked towards the hallway seeing the young scientist looking at him with horror. "The data readings are going haywire! I think the sun is still active!"

Running back down to the hallway, Jack reaches the young man and begins fast walking to the bridge. "How is that possible?", Jack asked.

"I'm not sure, but it looks like it's almost waking up..which sounds strange in itself." The young man scratched his forehead while trying to explain the situation. "With the way it's looking, it could possibly be-"

Before he could finish, an enormous blast of energy exploded from the dark sun. The ship's lights and engine died as crackles of electricity covered the hull of the ship. Slowly getting up, Jack yelled out, "An emp?! What the hell is going on here?!"

Recovering from the massive hit, the scientist scrambled to get his omni-tool working. Flickering on, he gasped, "Captain, we need to get the ship back up and running."

A massive twist formed in the captain's stomach, "And why would that be?"

Getting up from his squatted position, the young man turned towards the front windows of the bridge and pointed; tears and horror filling his eyes. "It's awake..."

As if a mouth had opened on the dark sun, everything within the system began to move towards it. The crew began panicking and running about, trying to get to some kind of safety as the helpless ship moved faster and faster towards the abyss. Running up to the map platform, Jack orders to get with engineering again. "Hank, get this ship up and running now!"

Screams and yelling could be heard over the intercom as the older voice came through, "We're trying, sir, but whatever came through seems to have fried some circuits! Repairing them won't be easy, seeing how the ship is rocking about so much! What's going on?!"

Jack, in a panic, yelled in reply, "Just get it done and hurry!"

More and more, the ship continued to increase in speed as the planets and other debris disappeared within the center of the sun. "C'mon, c'mon. Get this ship going.", Jack was holding on tight to the railing on the platform.

As if praying for a miracle, he glared at the black abyss, swallowing everything. Suddenly, the lights and displays began to flicker back on. "John! Get us the hell out of here!"

"Yes, sir!" Slowly the ship began to slwoly turn around, although still falling towards the sun. The scientist, stumbling, ran to the platform where Jack was standing, "Sir! There's something else!"

"What now?", Jack replied in annoyance.

"The sun, sir. I finally figured out why it was giving off such strange readings!"

Jack came down and looked at him with a puzzled look, "Why?"

In a excited, yet scared reply, "Because it's alive, sir. The sun has been taken over by something and is alive."

Stepping back, Jack stared at him with amazement. Another rumble resounded throughout the ship as the lights and engine died once more. Jack placed his hand on the railing, trying to prop himself only to notice that there was something coming through on the galaxy map. A face. A grotesque face; with shining blue eyes as if almost robotic with the face of a mutilated corpse but yet human.

"What the hell...", Jack stared at the fuzzy display until it yelled with a metallic screech, "MAKE US WHOLE!"

The display exploded sending shrapnel flying everywhere. Jack woke up to the sight of fire all around. Pushing himself up, he felt stuck in place. Looking down, he sees a piece of the railing, pierced through his abdomen, pinning him to the wall. He grabs for the long piece of metal only to have his grip slip from the blood covering it. Giving up, he sat back as he felt himself losing consciousness. The scene of his fellow crew mates, strewn about, some missing limbs screaming in pain, other no longer moving. A veil of black covering all that was before him. Tears streamed down his face.

_I never got to say I love you, one last time..._

His eyes closed as the ship was consumed into darkness.


	2. Chapter 1 - Nightmare

_Chapter 1:_

_Nightmare_

It's been four years since the Galaxy suffered one of the most monumental battles ever to be witnessed. Every race encountered great loss both within their military and on their home-worlds. Casualties in the millions and many more missing in action continued to rise. Past enemies helped new friends. Races thought to be inferior, were now looked upon for their abilities and resources. Home-worlds were slowly beginning to radiate with the brilliance that once showed their races pride. Yet in all of this, Earth still held the greatest loss.

Over two years in searching, they could not find the remnants of the one soldier that saved the lives of many. Some say he was obliterated in the explosion that followed the red pulse that destroyed, not just the Reapers, but the Mass Effect relays as well. Even with the limited resources that were to be found on Earth, the search was futile.

A small recon ship flies by Mars' moon Phobos; steadily scanning any debris that flew by.

"See anything?", said a man sitting in front of a computer screen.

"As per usual, nothing.", said the pilot.

The ship continued on around the moon and began passing the planet itself. Sighing, the man who had been staring at the brightly lit screen leaned back and stretched. His short black hair hanging back as he went as far as his chair would let him.

"Don't lean too far back Chris. You remember what your heavy self did last time.", laughed the pilot.

Chuckling at the comment, Chris straightened out and stood up. Being almost six feet tall with a muscular build, being in a small recon ship wasn't exactly comfortable. Walking over to the pilot, he sat down in the seat next to him.

"Yea, I definitely don't want the damages to come out of my paycheck again", said Chris.

"Your wife would kill you if you lost all that money.", joked the pilot.

"That is very true. I really wouldn't want to deal with that again. Even if what we still had was enough to get by at the time.", Chris said with a joking tone that went to a serious one.

The pilot hit the autopilot and reclined back. Taking off his helmet, his buzz cut orange hair was beaded with sweat. Stroking his hand over his head he sighed.

"We're all hitting hard times. This war did a huge number on us and everyone going to have make due. Even though I lost everyone I knew, including my wife and two children, I still press on hoping things get better."

A soft silence carried the two men through the stars as both reminisced about what life was like before the Reapers had attacked. The silence was broken when a ring resounded throughout the ship with a flash of yellow coming from the dashboard.

"A call from headquarters? You think they found something Dean?", questioned Chris.

Resting his finger on the button, Dean looked at his co-pilot, "Only one way to find out."

Answering the call, static was all they could here along with someone in the background.

"Com- in. Th- Alliance Comm-. Do you co- y?"

Trying to get the static to clear, the pilot did his best to listen.

"Hello? This is the Nautilus. Recon Ship 259. Do you copy?", said Dean continuing to fiddle with the reception.

"Nautilus. This is Alliance Command. Do you copy?", replied the caller clearly.

"Nice. We got it. We hear you loud and clear Command. Has someone found him?", said the pilot.

There was silence.

"Command?", Dean, worried he lost connection, looked at the dashboard confused.

"No. We have not found him. That's actually why we're calling. We are ceasing all attempts to look for Commander Shepard."

The beeps coming from the computers and the hum of the ship was all that could be heard. Surprise was shown on both the men's faces. They whispered to each other back and forth on how it couldn't be possible. Why would the Alliance just suddenly give up?

"The higher ups believe that our resources could be used elsewhere more effectively. That is why we're assigning a new mission to the Nautilus.", said Alliance, breaking the chatter between the two.

Chris spoke up, "But what if he's still alive out there? He's got to be somewhere." His fists starting to clench.

"Lieutenant Andrews, the Alliance is well aware of how important Shepherd was to the Galaxy. We've spent two years searching for him with no luck. We also know your ties to him. He saved your life and that should be the end of it.", replied the person on the other side nonchalantly.

Chris's teeth clenched; he held his tongue. _He didn't just save my life..._

The pilot quickly asked, "What's this assignment you called us for?"

"Though we may not have found Shepard, we found something equally as important."

"What do you think it could be?", whispered Chris.

The pilot shrugged his shoulders as they both listened for the answer.

"Alliance Command needs you to investigate the Acheron cluster in the Styx Theta system. Scanner have indicated a faint distress beacon coming from a planet uncharted there.", explained the man.

"A distress signal? Of what origin is it? Turian? Quarian?", asked Dean.

A sound of people conversing could be heard. "It seems to be of Alliance origin, but we're not completely sure."

"Well, there's not much we can do. Send us the coordinates and we'll check it out.", said Dean.

As the pilot and the man from Alliance Command discussed the details of the mission, Chris looked out the front window towards the sight of the blue dot he called home. Seeming so far, he could hear his children laughing and see his beautiful wife and home as if he was standing there in person. Waving to her from a distance, he began to jog towards her. That was when his dream turned from a paradise into a nightmare. As he continued to run to his wife, who was standing on the porch of his home, a dark sphere rose from behind the house and covered it with solid shadow. Chris yelled for his wife but there was no answer. Suddenly, a blood curdling scream emanated from where the house once stood. Out shot a horrific entanglement of wire and ripped skin as the monster came hurdling towards the Lieutenant. It's mouth split in half down the chin, with what looked to be fangs at the ends. The absence of it's eyes, the complete disembowelment of it's torso, and the many blade like arms made this monster worse than anything ever seen. Grabbing for the pistol on his hip, Chris realized nothing was there. He threw his hands up as the monster came down upon him. Chris yelled in fear. Finding himself on his knees, all he could hear was his shaky, heavy breathing. Opening his eyes, he saw the monster had disappeared. All that was before him was darkness.

"Hello?", yelled Chris.

No answer.

"Janice! Where are you?", yelled Chris again.

A distant, soft voice came from behind him.

_Christopher..._

Quickly turning around, Chris looks to see who called him.

"Janice?", he called out.

_Christopher..._

The voice sounded closer.

"Who's there?!", he yelled with a shaky tone.

_Christopher..._

Closer.

"Get away from me!", he started looking into the darkness to see who was tormenting him.

"Christopher."

The voice came from behind him. Unsure as if to turn around, Chris slowly looked behind. As his eyes came to see what was behind him, he quickly took a step back. Standing there was his wife who's eyes were two black holes; blood trailing from the the sockets. Her mouth was split on the corners, all the way up to her ears. The dress she wore in the beginning was drenched with what he thought was her own blood. She took a step closer to him.

"Christopher...help me..."

His reply couldn't come. The fear of the thing in front of him was too much.

"Christopher...help me...make us whole..."

He couldn't look any more. Chris turned and ran away from the abomination that was standing before him. As he ran, he could still hear her.

"Christopher...make us whole..."

Running, running more into the darkness, Chris couldn't stop. He looked over his shoulder and the monster was right behind him. It wasn't running, it was just standing there. Was he the one not moving?

"Christopher...please..."

"Shut up! Get away from me!", yelled Chris.

As if a group of people were surrounding him, multiple voices began chant.

"Make us whole...make us whole...make us whole..."

Taking in a deep breath, Chris yelled out, "Shut up!"

Breaking through the darkness, two large blue spheres came at him screeching in what sounded like metal rubbing metal.

"MAKE...US...WHOLE!"

Chris was then jerked out of the dream, finding himself sitting in the seat of the recon ship. The Dean's hand on his shoulder. Flinching from the sight of the pilot, Chris looked around the ship, as if looking for any signs of what he just witnessed.

"Chris? You ok? I've been trying to snap out of the daze you were in. You were chanting something, but I couldn't figure out what you were saying.", said Dean.

Sweat covered his face; dripping from his nose and chin, Chris nodded his head.

"I'm fine. Yea, I'm fine. No worries.", he replied while wiping his face with his sleeve. "Are we heading out or no?"

Sitting back in his chair, the pilot shook his head while looking at his paled co-pilot, "Yea. Just got the coordinates from Command. You sure you're ok?"

Chris tried to block the mental image of the thing that was his wife but to no avail. Her voice continued to echo in his head.

_Christopher...help me..._

"Let's just get going. The sooner the better.", said Chris strapping himself in for the flight.

Buckling himself in, Dean shook his head as he entered the coordinates into the dashboard. The ship began to travel outside the reach of Mars as the engines began to power up for jump-space travel.

"I hope whoever we find is on our side.", commented Dean.

Chris, still petrified, "Yea. That certainly would be a blessing."

The ship shot out into space; traveling to the beginning of what would be the nightmare Chris never wanted.

_Hello everyone. Unknown to me, I was not aware that there was a DLC that continued Dead Space's story. For that reason, __I will still have Isaac and Carver, just in a different way of how they survived. I would still love to see reviews from anyone who reads my story. I love feedback and it will ensure that I give you all the best possible story to read. There will no romance in this story due to the fact I see no point in a romance when things are going to crap. I may have something of a reunion type deal but no new romances. Language may be here and there due to both games having and me wanting to keep with the feel of things. Enjoy!_


End file.
